Phases of the Moon
by Sunbird Riding Shotgun
Summary: When Eliot gets bitten by a werewolf on a job everything changes. Eventual N/E/S
1. Those Who Were Lost

**Notes**: This is a short series I'm doing for my Hurt/Comfort Bingo Square over on Live Journal. It will eventually be Nate/werewolf!Eliot/Sophie but will contain mentions of Eliot/OMC.  
This chapter is for the Orphans and Runaways Square.

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**Those Who Were Lost**

* * *

In retrospect he probably shouldn't have taken this case.

No. Someone had to take this case and there wasn't exactly another team he could just toss this one over to.

But there were days…

They'd made it to Nowhere'Vil Middle America, a tiny town not ten miles from an abandoned commune recently reinhabbited by what seemed to be a cult with mostly orphans and runaways as members, a very well connected leader, and a tendency to move from town to town leaving a trail of dead kids.

Then they were sitting in their hotel, working through the final stages of planning for the con and Nate had just outlined the beginning of the mark's downfall as they proved to his followers that he was the one killing dissenters when Eliot cut in.

"They already know." He crossed his arms but didn't move away from the wall he was leaning against, unphased by the confused and disbelieving looks they were giving him. "If they don't most wouldn't care."

"What do you mean wouldn't care?" Sophie asked.

"These were street kids. They'd lost everythin', home, family, safety, if they ever had it ta begin with and this nutjob used the promise of a second chance to lure them in. He tells them they're a family, gives them something close enough to a home that they take it, makes them feel like they're part of something. They develop a pack mentality, nothing but the group matters, everything they have, even their identities is tied into it. He'd teach them to see someone trying to leave as a threat." He let out a long breath. "And for them…. Without the group they're nothing. So a threat to the group…"

There was a beat of silence, the words sinking in, and an awkward sort of quiet settling when they fell a little too close to home.

Yeah Nate knew taking a job about a group of orphans and runaways would be a bad idea.

His own group was made out of mostly orphans and runaways.

They planned through the next step and ended the meeting, Sophie drifting over to sit next to him off to the side.

They watched, not even bothering to follow the words said, as an argument broke out between Hardison and Eliot, Parker inevitably being drawn into the mix.

The volume soon rose and the back and forth sped up and Eliot was threatening bodily harm.

But Nate didn't really bother to track it, because the dialogue didn't match the scene he was watching.

Eliot and Hardison were sitting together on the couch shoulders touching, Parker perched on the coffee table feet mixed in with Eliot and Hardison. Hands gestured but seemed to brush against one another, or reach out and make contact that was never nearly as harsh as the tone of the words being spoken suggested and even as Eliot threatened them both they leaned closer to him.

Nate ignored the words and in those actions he saw them unconsciously expressing agitation from the reminder of past isolation when they had nothing and seeking to remind themselves and each other that though they had once been lost they were now found.

"It's ironic." Sophie muttered next to him. "We aren't so different in the end. A bunch of orphans and runaways." She paused a moment before adding. "Or those running from themselves… the longer we're all together the more we tie who we are to this group." Her voice dropped a little softer and Nate wasn't sure if it was on purpose or she was simply thinking as she muttered, eyes tracking the other three as Parker all but climbed onto Eliot's lap to try to get the remote from Hardison. "The more the family becomes everything. Even if most of us would never admit to it."

"Ironic?" Nate half asked, only partially seeing the irony in their group taking down the abusive head of another such group. He sensed that wasn't her only feeling.

"And somewhat concerning." She mused.

His eyes lingered on Parker now settled quite comfortably on the couch with the boys, for a moment longer before drifting up to the picture of their mark with his arm around a fifteen year old girl, his mind turning back to the teams accounts of the job that put him in jail.

And Parker almost casual description of nearly dropping Tara off a roof when she thought Tara had betrayed the team.

His eyes track back to the three, track back to Eliot, his thoughts turning as he mutters in response. "Somewhat."


	2. When a New Moon Shines

**Notes: **This is for the "Werewolves: First bite/first transformation" Square on my h/c bingo card.

****

* * *

When a New Moon Shines

* * *

The plan changed when Eliot's voice sounded over the coms moments before they heard the first howl echo in the distance.

"Get in the van and get ready to leave now."

It was the tone they all knew better than to argue with.

Of course when he said that he and Parker weren't anywhere near the van.

It was night and they were taking advantage of the huge stretches of open woods and unused back roads to do physical surveillance of the commune their mark had taken up residence in. Parker and Eliot had gone the last quarter mile on foot through the woods with Hardison and Nate in the van and Sophie back in the hotel.

Another howl rang through the night air, closer, and Nate felt a shiver go down his spine as he realized what might be causing the note of fear underneath Eliot's words. He started the engine and turned the van around to be ready to fly back down the road as soon as the others arrived. "Ready on this end, what's your ETA?"

"Five minutes, maybe less." There was a half ironic chuckle as he mentioned. "The moon's full an' it's easy to see the path."

Another howl, closer still. Loud enough to be heard over the coms because a moment later Sophie gasped.

Apparently he and Eliot weren't the only ones that knew the danger.

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel impatiently, wondering why he hadn't seen it. The commune had been abandoned for years but the townspeople, completely unaware it had new residents, had made it clear they shouldn't go up there. The fact the buildings had been in a livable condition. The supposedly long dead owner of the property. The growing chill in the air…

No it wasn't enough for him to have realized, but he should have taken it into possibility that the supposedly abandoned commune their mark had taken up residence in was the winter home for a pack of werewolves.

"What happens if they don't reach us first?" Hardison muttered, no joking in his voice.

"Does anyone on this team not know that werewolves are real?" Eliot growled over the com.

"I thought everyone knew." Parker commented and Nate resisted the urge to rub his eyes. "I mean yeah, we kinda don't talk about them when they aren't chasing us but that's just 'cause they don't come up in conversation that much."

"We're thieves Parker." Sophie reminded her. "We know about them because we avoid them. Most of the world doesn't have to learn how to tell if the house you're about to break into belongs to someone who can outrun a horse, track you by scent across a city, and has no problem tearing you apart."

"Or learn ta always carry somethin' silver around in case a lone wolf hires out as a hitter to make some cash." Eliot growled again before another howl very very close made everyone freeze. "Parker when I say run run for the van."

"Eliot she runs and they'll chase her even if they're not hunting you already." Nate warned. "Even Parker can't outrun them."

"No they won't." Parker said. "Eliot's been faking a limp for the past three minutes. They'll go after the weak prey."

"And how the hell is he gonna get back here with a whole pack hunting him down." Hardison asked.

"If you kill one of them t-"

Any further argument was stopped when Eliot shouted. "RUN."

For a few seconds all they heard was heavy breathing as they both ran then a ferocious growl roared over their earbuds followed by the sounds of a scuffle.

Parker broke through the tree line and Hardison hurled open the van door in time for her to jump in.

They closed it most of the way and Nate shut his eyes briefly. "Eliot? Eliot? When are you getting here?"

A crack, a roar of pain, a cut off howl turned into a human scream and then the sound of pounding feet and Eliot broke the tree line, long silver knife in his right hand glinting in the moon light and dripping with silver-red blood matching the splatters across his face and clothes.

He almost knocked Hardison over as he jumped in the van and slammed the door shut, shouting "Drive."

Nate floored the gas peddle.

"We pick up Sophie and then we keep going." Eliot said between pants, trying to catch his breath. "We don't stop until we reach an airport at least two hundred miles from here. Sophie, shut it down. We're not coming back."

"The job?" Sophie asked. "Those people."

"Are inside a building. As long as they don't go outside they'll be fine until morning and the pack will evict them in human form."

"Eliot, what you said. The pack will be considered a threat…" Hardison started.

The knife skittered across the floor in the back. "Whatever happens next we're out of the game. I just killed the pack's beta. If any of them ever see me or smell someone whose been around me long enough to pick up my scent like you all the pack will rip them to shreds. We need to figure out their territory and none of us can come within a hundred miles of it ever again. Understood?"

No one spoke as they pulled into the hotel parking lot where Sophie stood in the doorway waiting for them. She climbed in the back and Nate took off down the highway.

"Closest airport is the one we flew in to." Hardison said. "Second closest is two hundred thirty miles north west of here."

"Is it busy?"

"Over two dozen red eye flights to chose from."

"Buy tickets for a flight with the aliases we had in town and when we get there hack us tickets for the next flight out of that gate with different aliases. Make we get there in time to catch the first flight but we don't go to the gate until the first flight's left." Eliot responded. "They'll have to come in in human form so their sense of smell will be weaker and we might lose them in the crowd. If not we'll have to hope we can convince 'em we left on the first flight."

"Any preference to where we actually go?" Hardison asked already typing.

"Somewhere a couple hours drive from Boston would be nice."

Hardison got to work and a quiet fell over the darkened van. No one could quite put together words for how far astray tonight's plans had gone, and how much farther south they could have gone.

Later Nate would half wonder if what caused the silence to finally break was the gods of huberus getting back at him for assuming things weren't that bad.

Hardison mentioned a flight but Eliot didn't respond right away.

"Eliot? Dude, you fall asleep?" Hardison asked, Nate could hear the shuffling in the back as Parker and Sophie noticed Eliot's continued silence.

A moment later Eliot responded. "Cool it, can't a guy think? Yeah. It's fine." He let out a long suffering sigh with just a little hitch.

Nate nearly jerked the steering wheel as the realization, as the dread, hit him like a punch to the gut. "Hardison, we need lights, Sophie, Eliot's hurt."

"My god." Sophie gasped.

There was scrambling movement and when Eliot only murmured his protest Nate's stomach dropped further.

"I'm 'right."

"Alright?" Hardison asked, a note of hysteria on his voice. "This is a lot of blood. Think you might have mentioned it before you halfway bled out."

"Eliot let me see." Sophie tried coaxing. "We have to see if…" She couldn't quite get the word out.

"If I got bit?" He said and suddenly no one could manage to say anything. Cloth rustled and Nate glanced into the rearview mirror as Hardison managed to get a little more light on the subject. "There's nothing any of us can do." Eliot eased the bloodied flannel away from his shoulder, revealing two slight puncture wounds still bleeding despite the fact even Nate could tell they'd been shallow. "The thing got me, just barely but…" Nate forced his eyes back to the road, the sick feeling down, the image of the wolf's canines just barely breaking skin before Eliot broke away just a moment too late.

And just like that…

"We need ta be somewhere safe by sundown." Eliot said, his voice insanely calm. "By the time the moon rises we'll know which of the three I am."

When people were bit by werewolves one of three things could happen.

They got sick but got better and went on in life with nothing more than an aversion to large dogs.

They turned into a werewolf.

Or they died.

The bleeding mercifully stopped soon. They pulled themselves together enough to go through Eliot's plan and board a plane home.

By the time they rented a car in Belbridge in the early afternoon Eliot's condition had taken a turn for the worse. Pale and shivering, responding only in clipped monosyllables and his eyes never focusing on anyone or anything for long Nate speculated anyone else would have already been down for the count

As they set out for Boston, for home, the hope and fear made the air too thick for conversation beyond the necessity. The illness could mean Eliot would get better without turning.

Or it could worsen until he died.

When they unloaded back at the apartment Eliot broke his silence long enough to indicate they should help him down to the panic room in the building's basement that was hopefully secure enough.

They all knew bits and pieces, how to identify a werewolf or their territory, how to kill one, even some of their customs and hierarchy.

None of them knew what would happen tonight if Eliot changed.

They moved together, Eliot fading as fast as the afternoon light finally allowing Nate and Hardison to help him navigate the stairs and settle him down on the bed in the panic room. Sophie fluttering about, trying to do what she could, Parker hanging back watching with the same confusion and fear she had since the news had first been given.

She was learning how to con, but it seemed she hadn't had enough experiencing with those she cared about getting hurt to know how to cover her feelings.

Or maybe that 'something wrong' with her Eliot had always talked about just meant she wasn't in the same shock and denial that the rest of them seemed to be functioning in.

Always talks about. Nate told himself. Not in the past tense.

Not yet.

Hardison gets his computer and continues the research he's been doing whenever he could for the past fourteen hours, bashing against the stone wall of simply too many stories, too much information, and no way of knowing for sure what, if any of it, was true.

Sophie gets on her cell phone, trying to con her way through a dozen contacts to get someone who can tell her anything.

Nate watches them settle in around the tiny space and goes for a drink, checking the position of the sun, lowering in the sky.

When he comes back Parker has sat beside Eliot, fingers carding through his sweat soaked hair. He searches for some way to tell her Eliot isn't a dog and she shouldn't pet him before seeing Eliot's more relaxed than he's been all day, blue eyes finally closed in sleep.

"Guys?" Hardison says from his computer. "I've got some good news and some… not so good news."

Sophie abruptly ends the conversation she'd been having in Polish on her cell and hangs up, Parker turns, and Nate considers praying not for the first time that day before nodding for Hardison to continue.

"I got in touch with an old hacker friend I knew before I found out about the whole werewolves are real thing. I always thought I was watching too much Buffy or something cause she kept disappearing around the full moon and I always wondered…" He cut himself off, shaking his head. "She is. She wouldn't tell me a lot, said she's not supposed to talk to non-pack about this kind of thing, but considering the situation she told me what she could. If he turns tonight he'll be too weak to do damage to anyone or thing so we should stay with him. She says if we do, if we take care of him, the wolf will learn our scents and we'll be safe around him in the future."

Parker raised her hand and Hardison nodded. "What's the bad news?"

Hardison looked toward the bed, probably checking to make sure Eliot was still sleeping, his voice softening. "She warned me to make sure wherever he's changing is soundproof or away from people. Changes are… not pleasant experiences."

Nate took another drink and a part of his mind wondered that the whiskey didn't burn going down as much as usual.

As moonrise approached Eliot's sleep grew fitful but he didn't wake. Parker left his bedside to join the argument developing between Sophie and Hardison about what would happen in just a handful of minutes when the sun started to go down. Nate didn't bother to keep up with the argument, reading the anxiety, the need to make some kind of plan, the weight of Hardison's words added to everything else threatening to crush them.

It seemed Parker wasn't the only one who's shock had given way to fear now.

"I'm staying with him through the change." Nate said simply, the quiet words causing the conversation to grind to a halt. "I'll let you all back in when it's done. If it's as bad as you said Hardison he wouldn't want more of us to see it than had to."

No one could argue with that.

A sound like a tolling bell came from Hardison's lap top. The hacker looked to it then back to meet Nate's eyes. "Sundown in five minutes."

"Go." Nate said, his voice flater than he thought it should be.

Hardison nodded, wrapping an arm around Parker's shoulders to heard her toward the room's entrance.

Sophie stood her ground.

"Sophie."

"I'm staying Nate." She said firmly. "Eliot may not want us to see it but he never wants our help. If things go badly he may need both of us before the end. He's my team mate to."

There was an echo in her words, a faint sound of Maggie, a faint sound of something more hysteric than Nate was used to hearing from Sophie.

The door slid closed behind Hardison, the clang of metal on metal echoing in the stillness like another bell tolling.

"He could die here." Nate told Sophie, something starting to fill that hollow sound in his voice, knowledge he's been forcing away coming out to color his tone. "If he's getting this sick he could be rejecting the change. If he does he'll die during the change, screaming. His body contorted, not man, not wolf... I've seen the body of someone who rejected the change Sophie and even if he lives…"

_It never gets easier. The only comfort is if he survives the first change he'll survive the rest. Even if they'll make him wish they would._

He couldn't say the knowledge bouncing around his brain.

She stepped toward him, soft hand brushing his cheek. "whatever happens tonight I want… I need to be here for you both. Please."

Before he could answer Eliot gasped, his eyes shooting open, and any argument came to an end.

Together they hurried to the bed, helping the hitter sit up, supporting him between them, his body shaking, shivering, almost violently despite his skin being almost burning to touch.

"Cc…cold…" He choked out, just barely managing to raise his head, staring out toward a point on the ceiling, blue eyes flecked with gold.

Suddenly the gold flooded his eyes, he threw back his head and made a sound somewhere past a scream, somewhere past being unable to make a sound and being unable to not let out a cry.

Nate felt as much as heard the crunch of bones breaking beneath skin, muscles ripping, moving, morphing. Eliot crumpled forward toward the floor and they moved with him, keeping him from falling, still holding him between them.

Someone was speaking soft encouragements and comforts, Nate wasn't even sure who. Fingers, Sophie's, stroked through Eliot's hair, while his own rubbed small soothing circles into skin. It wasn't much but there was nothing more they could do.

Eliot's body fought the change but it was gaining ground fast, arms and hands twitched out, stretching and twisting half way to paws before pulling back to something almost resembling hands for a breath before twisting again. Ripples seemed to pass over his body, just starting to change before reverting back. The seconds dragged on, Eliot's temperature climbing higher, his breathing becoming more and more erratic, heart pounding faster and faster.

Nate forced himself to look away from Eliot, meet Sophie's eyes, finding matching dread and realization there.

Eliot was fighting the change and losing, but the longer he dragged it out, the longer he held on… it was killing him.

If he won he'd get through this human, but they could both see this was one fight Eliot wasn't going to win alive.

Sophie bit her lip and nodded. _Do what you have to. Save him._

Nate looked back down to Eliot and leaned in close to whisper in the man's ear.

"Let it go. Let yourself change. We'll be here in the morning. Just make sure you live to see it."

Eliot's head turned, gold colored eyes locking with his before closing.

For a moment nothing changed then the ripples increased, hands and feet twisting into paws and staying, body morphing, form changing, a final cry of agony morphed into a howl and then Eliot went limp.

They met eachother's eyes over the large wolf between them, feeling the reassuring rise and fall of Eliot's chest.

"It's over." Sophie muttered, shifting and Nate instinctively helped Sophie move him to rest in a more natural position.

"No. Just beginning." Nate responded, stroking a hand through the fur. "Can you let the other's in?"

Sophie nodded, rising on unsteady feet and opening the door, the others streamed in quickly, sitting on the floor near them in silence.

Minutes passed before the form twitched, a soft sound that was an almost familiar growl escaping before golden eyes slowly blinked open. Eliot lifted his head, slowly sitting up, nose in the air head swiveling to try to locate them all.

"Easy, easy." Nate said offering a hand for the wolf to sniff, glancing to the others as Eliot gave a soft yip and nuzzled the offered hand.

One by one they offered Eliot their hands to smell, surprised as he in turn nuzzled them back and shakily got to his feet to brush against them. He seemed shaky, weak from the fight and the change, but with each passing moment he moved with a little more confidence, a little more easy grace and energy.

As Eliot adjusted to his new form the others adjusted to the fact their hitter was now a very large sandy colored wolf.

Suddenly Nate just…

He slipped out of the panic room and back to the stairwell, sitting on a step in the darkness, staring at his hands, everything that had happened in the past twenty four hours crashing down around him and just trying to breathe through the echoes of those screams ripping through his mind.

Footsteps in the silence, someone sitting down next to him, a head resting against his shoulder, Sophie's perfume drifting through his mind.

In a few minutes they'd go back, welcome the wolf into their lives as a new part of their team mate.

But for now they sit together in the darkness and mourn what had been lost.


	3. Stranger in a Strange Body

**Notes:** This story is for the wildcard square on my H/C bingo card, using the prompt "Werewolves: Seperated from Pack".

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**Stranger in a Strange Body**

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Eliot watched the moon rise.

It was night, two nights after the full moon. One night after he'd changed for the first time. Two nights after he'd been bitten.

Somewhere in the building below the team was trying to go back to normal. After he changed back to human form this morning everyone had crashed, gotten some sleep, and then met again to try to work through this new hitch in their lives.

He'd gone into the meeting focusing on moving past this, on making this just another thing to keep in mind, that for the night of, before, and after Eliot was out of the game and they had to be careful with silver around him but other wise…

He'd tried to even make a point that for the rest of the time he'd be able to do his job even better. Already he could feel the difference as his human form changed slowly. He was already faster, stronger, his senses sharper than ever. He hadn't known before but he could sense in the very beat of his heart that he was changing, that he'd continue to change until the next full moon.

The first change the night after you were bitten. The body changing, growing stronger, with every day that passes until the next full moon and the first real change solidifies it.

He knew it in his bones that if nothing else their timing had been perfect. When all was said and done even among werewolves there would be few able to match him.

Funny how even with a change in lueges he was still one of the best.

The meeting had ended with everyone all to ready to accept the suggestion that nothing much had really changed.

Only now he was up here, on the roof, trying to tell himself he was the same man he was two days ago.

That he didn't look at the moon and find himself entranced.

That he didn't stand here, feeling this urge to let out his call into the night and listen until his pack answered to call him home.

That the fact there would be no answer didn't cause a sort of sharp _hurtpain _in his chest like he hadn't felt since the first few days in Croatia.

He was a wolf without a pack, without a mate, without an alpha, without without without.

And he had no words for the way that thought alone seemed to open some kind of gaping wound inside him.

Something, a scent, pulled him from his thoughts. It was just the faintest hint, carried on a breeze from somewhere even his new senses couldn't track but it was there.

A scent he had no name for, one of the many he was discovering today, but different.

He had no name for it, no word for it, and it smelled like nothing he'd ever smelled but at the same time it crashed over him like the scent of his mama's cooking and the shampoo Amie used and wet earth after a hard rain and fresh hay in a hot summer sun.

_Warmsafehomepack_

Then suddenly it was gone, ripped away with the night breeze, stealing what warmth he had left with it leaving him feeling all the more frozen, all the more isolated.

Alone.

He stayed standing there long into the night, face turned toward the breeze, desperate to catch the scent again, maybe be able to identify it's source and maybe even how to find his own way back to the werewolf it came from.

But as the night faded and the chill sank deep into his bones he shook off the stillness and wound his way back down into the building, back into Nate's apartment.

He didn't even know what to say when he found Nate sitting up at the counter, reading a newspaper, not even acknowledging there was anything odd about Eliot showing up half frozen at four in the morning and making himself some tea.

When Eliot had the tea in hand and sat down at the counter Nate folded the paper and set it to the side, standing slowly before walking back toward the stairs.

As he passed Eliot Nate settled a hand on his shoulder, the heat of it dispelling the chill better than the tea in his hands ever would.

He went to bed without a word but Eliot understood what was said in that silence.

"We're here for you."

Eliot drank down the tea and put a hand on the spot where Nate's hand rested, trying to hold the warmth in.

They weren't his pack, but they were his team, his family.

And maybe that would be enough.


	4. First Sparks

**Notes: **This was for the Electricution square on my H/c Bingo card. It's a little more metophorical than the others.

* * *

**First Sparks**

* * *

They noticed from the beginning, knew the very moment Eliot walked into the apartment that something changed.

Later they'd have that both as comfort and condemnation.

It was just under a month since Eliot was turned and the team had finished up a job the day before and were holding off starting a new one until the lunar cycle was a little more in their favor.

The day after tomorrow, the night before the full moon, Eliot would make the monthly change for the first time.

They were all adapting, dealing, moving forward. Nate had even heard Parker and Hardison teasing Eliot about his 'time of the month' the day before and the hitter threatening them with bodily harm.

It was possibly a sign that there was something wrong with the team as a whole that in Nate's book that was a good sign.

He and Sophie were still having trouble and not just because they knew what was coming with the full moon.

Eliot was covering well but they were both good enough at reading people to know on some level Eliot was struggling. The changes happening inside his mind and body were subtler than the ones that happened every full moon but in a way that was harder on the hitter, waking up every morning and going to sleep every night with his limits, senses, even body itself different than the day before and completely out of his control. Before his instincts had been a useful tool, keeping him alive and sharp they were running rampant through the man in ways they could only guess at.

But what had them both the most worried was the weight that seemed to have settled on Eliot's shoulders, the emotion that seemed to hang over him, flickering across his face when he thought no one was looking or would notice it's echo after his smiles.

Loneliness, longing… the words just didn't feel quite right.

Which is why they knew something had happened because the weight, the hint of desolation, the part of him that seemed far away and tired was gone.

It seemed almost like someone had shocked him back to life and run a current through him then given him about eight shots of espresso for good measure.

Sophie couldn't remember ever seeing Eliot look jittery before.

He joked with Parker and Hardison, banter spilling over at a faster pace than usual.

Then Sophie caught sight of Nate's worried expression and slipped over to stand next to him, still watching the kids play. "What is it?"

"I've seen him like this before." Nate muttered. "Not exactly like this but…"

"But what."

"Back before he was a retrieval specialist, just one of the best hitters money could hire. He used to get like this after a big fight. I always thought it was because he was using some kind of drug before the fights." In the silence afterwards Sophie heard a story long gone and the explanation not quite finished. _So it was easier to just kill without thinking._

"Do you think…?" Sophie asked not even sure what it was she was asking. If Eliot had gone back to old habits to escape what he was going through? If he'd had a big fight somewhere and this was just his natural reaction?

Eliot slipped away from the others and suddenly he was right there. Sophie cursed internally. They were still all trying to get used to the way his senses were so sharply improved.

"'m not high." He stated with a serious expression, almost visibly trying to still the jitters passing through his system. "I'm just… I met someone." He explained, or attempted to. He didn't seem to really know quite how to explain it.

"Met someone?" Nate asked, voice neutral.

Eliot nodded. "Another werewolf."

_Oh._

"His names Jacob. He's an alpha." Even as Eliot said it he took a breath in, eyes half closing, looking more like a wolf trying to pull in and classify the smells in the air than a human. They'd been warned by Hardison's hacker friend that the closer to the full moon it was the stronger the wolf got and for someone newly turned it was likely mannerisms would get more wolf like than human for the first few months at least. "He smells almost as good as Sop-" Eliot half coughed, looking to the side, almost embarrassed look on his face as human mind caught up with what he was saying.

"Hah!" Parker laughed somewhere behind them, saving the moment because really they all knew Parker didn't understand people enough to laugh at them. "A werewolf named Jacob. Hah." She turned toward Hardison who was making the "no" motion at her. "Like in that really really bad horror movie you took me to. With the vampire that sparkled and the girl with Stockholm syndrome."

By far the most frightening thing of the afternoon seemed to be that Hardison had taken Parker to see Eclipse.

Nate shook his head and went back into the kitchen for something to drink while Hardison tired (probably not for the first time) to explain the movie to Parker (and from the sound of it why it was only a horror movie in the sense that it was horrific that kids thought it wasn't a horror movie).

Sophie rested a hand on Eliot's shoulder, surprised at the tension coiled in the hitter. "I think it's sweet that you think I smell nice." She told him, trying to ease his embarrassment a little, not entirely sure the protocol for the situation. "Would you tell me more about this friend of yours?"

Eliot eased himself onto a chair by the table and Sophie sat next to him.

"I was out for a run this morning and he found me. Said he'd been trying to find me since I first turned, he'd been smelling me for weeks… I've been smelling him to so I believed him. He asked to run with me, said he knew I was newly turned and didn't have a pack and I had to have some questions and…" He faltered, confusion and frustration on his face.

"And what?" She asked, surprised he was telling her this but sensing…

He didn't understand. There was so much going on inside of him that he didn't understand maybe he was finally trying to trust someone else in the hopes that maybe it would help clear the fog he was walking through.

"…I just… said yes." He said simply. "…it never even passed through my mind I could say no or that I'd want to. I just… I trusted him. Instinctively." He shook his head, continuing to speak, not quite babbling, Eliot didn't babble, but the jitters seemed to be getting worse just thinking about it. "When I was a kid my mama always said that sometimes when you meet people you'll get this jolt, a shock almost, and that's fate's way of saying you should pay attention."

Sophie nodded, covering her surprise. This was the first time she could remember Eliot talking about his family in more than a barely there passing mention. "You felt that jolt?" She asked, some part of her wanting to ask about a different meeting but this wasn't the time.

Eliot looked down at his hands, clutching at the table like he was trying to find some way of grounding himself. He shook his head, letting out a breath, the effort to force himself into stillness almost visible. "I feel like I was electrocuted." He finally muttered. "Only it doesn't hurt. Just…" His voice faded away. "And it starts to fade and my mind bounces back to him and I *need* to go find him…" A bitter sound that was almost a laugh broke out of him. "It's ironic. I Killed that packs beta and it turns out I'm a natural beta. Of course."

Sophie let out the breath she'd been drawing in, her own private fears confirmed.

Of them all she knew the most about pack hierarchy, knew it was structured around dominance. Personality, abilities, even birthrights, determined whether a pack member was dominant or submissive with each side serving their roles, giving protection in exchange for obedience and loyalty as a group and often as mated pairs.

The wolf that established dominance over the pack became the alpha, their word becoming law for all those under them, the power of the pack binding them to the Alpha's will.

And somewhere between the Alpha and the rest of the pack, able to take charge in time of need but not a dominant wolf, able to submit to the Alpha but not a submissive wolf, were beta wolves.

Although dominant wolves, especially those who would otherwise be alphas, could last long periods as lone wolves, and even submissive wolves could make the adjustments and even come out the other side as a dominant, a beta…

Their instincts drove them differently, not just directing them toward the basic needs and giving them a pack mentality. Where most other wolves could, at least for some time, shake off the fact they were social creatures a beta's brain was hardwired to bond with an alpha for guidance and protection and help them form a pack to protect and guide….

Even if she didn't know that, the way just a brief contact with an alpha had Eliot practically shaking with instincts he didn't understand or know how to direct would have told her plenty.

She wanted to tell Eliot that he'd been acting as Beta to Nate's Alpha for a long time now, but she knew that wasn't the point.

They were trying to give Eliot the support of a family, give his wolf the sense of a pack, but at day's end they might have to let him go.

Sophie dismissed the idea.

They'd just have to do what they could to help him stay. Cross or burn whatever bridges they'd have to when they came to them.

Maybe they could steal him a pack.

She refocused her attention on Eliot, noticing the tremors running through his body, the way he jerked slightly every time the banter between Parker and Hardison got louder and twitched at things that probably only he could even register.

It wasn't hard to recognize he was experiencing sensory overload.

She wanted to help him but wasn't sure she could without making things worse before a thought occurred to her. Eliot's own words twisting through her mind.

She stood slowly, not touching him, but saying in a soft voice. "Come with me." She headed for the door without waiting to see if he'd follow her.

With Eliot it was always best if you just didn't give him a chance to argue.

She hesitated a moment at the stairs before heading down into the basement. She might not like the dank and stale air but the lack of ventilation would prevent any stray hints of Jacob's or any other werewolf's scents from finding them.

Eliot had said he felt like he'd been electrocuted.

So it only made sense for the first step to be removing him from the source of the "electricity" as best as she could.

Plus it was quiet here, which would help soothe his frayed nerves further.

Eliot followed her into the panic room and she was surprised to see him relax a little even as he stepped into the room. She hadn't expected even minor immediate results.

Then again this was where he'd made his first change, only to wake up to the team there, taking care of and protecting him…

Maybe it registered as something other than a panic room to him.

"Lay down on the bed." She told him, keeping her voice firm and even but gentle.

"Sophie?" He asked, hesitating just a little even as he inched toward the bed.

"Trust me."

Hopefully he did by now.

After another minute he did as told and she nodded to herself, mentally checking off the first step.

Of course the only steps that she knew to come after that was the generic "Administer first aid"

But that she could figure out.

She pulled a chair over to sit beside the bed, placing a hand on Eliot's shoulder when he started moving to sit up.

"Relax." She told him softly, watching the he turned toward her hand, breathing in and almost visually relaxing.

Her scent.

He could smell it even in human form and his wolf probably associated it with comfort.

She made a mental note to bring in her own pillowcases and sheets for the cot during the full moon if he didn't let them stay with him through the chance.

She ran her fingers through his hair, waiting as he tensed and fought his own instincts, and gave into them, relaxing at last.

"Good. Just breathe, lie still. Stay here with me." She mumbled, more to say something than to talk to him.

Bit by bit coiled muscles and nervous energy released and relaxed and Eliot slipped off to sleep.


	5. Laughing Matters

**Notes: **For the Fear of Clowns square on my H/c Bingo card

* * *

**Laughing Matters  
**_or  
_**Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Clown**

* * *

Hardison likes to believe he's managed to get not thinking about things down to an art form. In fact if he ever had to make a resume he might just include that as part of his list of skills because it had to be considered useful especially with all the people on the team who would be better off with a lot less time spent brooding.

The key, he'd found, wasn't actually not thinking about *anything* it was about carefully redirecting your thoughts and keeping a steady stream of new information.

Take now for example.

He could be thinking about the fact he set up bugs in the panic room when Eliot had told them all he was going to be making the changes alone and thus had been treated to a front row seat of Eliot writhing in pain and actually screaming as he changed before Hardison's eyes.

He could be thinking about how much Nate drank each of the three nights Eliot had changed or how Parker had perched on the stairs to the upper level of Nate's loft and picked every lock in her box, over and over and over, and how Sophie kept getting up from her chair where she was pretending to read before sitting back down.

He could be thinking about the worn out and exhausted Eliot who'd open the door every morning with bruises and a hollowed out look in his eyes.

But instead he was thinking about the new job they'd started the day after Eliot's last change. About the county fair he was currently at with Parker and Eliot.

About his continuing trials to help Eliot keep Parker from getting hyped up on sugar before their turn at the con came.

They'd learned the hard way a long time ago that Parker and sugar highs were a very bad combo.

He was also focusing on trying to find a decent wifi hotspot for his smart phone, how good Parker looked in the outfit Sophie had picked out for her, and finding as many opportunities to tease Eliot over the fact he seemed very very comfortable here.

The key to not thinking about things was having a wide and ever changing assortment of things that were safe to think about.

Of course his finely honed art was always somewhat at risk of being interrupted when they were on a con. Things he may not want to think about (the big question mark that was Eliot's new abilities and limitations, the weirdly overprotective streak Nate and Sophie had developed for Eliot, the fact there was a guy in a horse costume that might freak Parker out) could still have a major (and possibly lethal) effect on the con.

So when Eliot suddenly stopped mid sentence and tensed, muttering "quiet" in his guys with guns voice and nearly dropping the big chicken stuffed animal he'd won for Parker twenty minutes ago (and been forced to carry ever since and hadn't Hardison had so much fun with that) Hardison let himself think about things he wasn't thinking about.

Eliot was on edge, his nose twitching in a way Hardison would make fun of one day when this was all a little easier to think about, eyes flicking about.

He'd used his guys with guns voice but now he didn't seem so sure.

His gaze focused somewhere behind Hardison and the hacker could have sworn Eliot actually let out a low growl, the look on his face making Hardison think of a wolf pinning his ears back and starting to show teeth.

Hardison had a feeling he was going to turn around to find a goon (or, possibly, a drunk guy) behaving untoward toward Parker.

He didn't really expect to turn around and find a clown making (albeit a somewhat bewildered but not obviously spooked) Parker a balloon animal.

Hardison turned back to Eliot. "Dude. I understand you've got this paranoia thing going but a clown is not gonna try to kill Parker. You need to relax."

Of course telling Eliot to relax rarely had that effect so he should have probably saved his breath.

But it had been worth a shot.

"I can't smell him." Eliot responded subvocally, the earbuds allowing them all to hear it. "The hair dye, the makeup, clothes stored next to the horse trailers… I can't smell him."

That was new but the situation had crossed out of potentially-life-threatening-situation-zone and Hardison could start not thinking about things and focus on teasing Eliot.

It would help them both brood less and honestly the guy needed to relax. Just because he was basically wolverine now didn't mean it was a disaster if he couldn't smell someone.

"Okay we're all very impressed that you're not in any way shape or form actually afraid of clowns." Hardison announced at a normal volume.

"Eliot's afraid of clowns?" Parker asked without looking away from the quickly forming balloon crown. "No wonder he likes horses so much." The clown placed her balloon crown on her head and she pointed toward Eliot. "You should make him a Puppy as a peace offering."

On some level Hardison knew that A) the fact that Parker still thought horses killed clowns was worrisome and B) advising a clown to approach a –not- scared of clowns Eliot was probably a very bad idea.

But it was a situation dieing to be videoed for a potential future bargaining chip the next time Eliot found out something about him he didn't want getting out.

Alls fair in family and war.

Besides, the clown seemed entirely pleased to waddle up to Eliot, greet him cordially, and start blowing up balloons to make another balloon animal.

Of course before Hardison got any good footage Eliot went very still and started almost shaking when the Clown started to twist the balloon, his pupils dilating wide, blue eyes getting an almost metallic gold quality.

Shit.

"Parker, distraction, now." He said into the com, already moving forward as Parker moved to… whatever. He wasn't paying attention anymore by that point. He'd already put a hand on Eliot's shoulder and was physically turning the man away, half pulling him toward the shadowed alley between two tents. "Eliot breath relax."

"_What's happening?"_ Nate's voice chimed over the coms even as Hardison heard Sophie excuse herself from whoever she'd been talking to.

Eliot's breathing was coming quick and shallow, eyes locking on Hardison's, panic and fear in them like Hardison didn't remember seeing in the Hitter before.

But he did recognize.

"I think Eliot's having a panic attack." The words sounded wrong as he said them but it was really the only thing he could think of. "Or a weird werewolf version of one." Eliot had leaned back against a post, closing his eyes and cupping his hands over his nose and mouth like he was trying to physically stop the panicked breaths getting dangerously close to hyperventilation. "What do I do?"

"Get him to focus on you and try to get him to breathe normally." Sophie told him. "The panic causes you to breathe quicker, the body mistakes it as an inability to breathe and you panic further. By now both are out of his control. Help him get it back."

How the heck was he supposed to help captain self discipline regain control of his own body?

Before he could ask this Parker had slipped forward, wrapping an arm around his back and pressing herself along the side of his body, leaning her head against his shoulder and breathing in deeply.

Despite the situation Hardison almost smiled. The contact made Eliot focus on her and the manner of the contact would mean Eliot could *feel* Parker's breathing pattern.

Somehow Parker knowing how to follow Sophie's directions without saying a word made sense.

"What's happening?" Nate asked when the silence stretched on a moment longer.

"Parker's taking care of Eliot. Seems to be working." He didn't add the 'a little' out loud.

"Do you know what triggered him?" Sophie asked, the ambient noise from her com changing to a quieter setting.

"A clown trying to make him a balloon animal. I didn't even know fear of clowns was an actual phobia that strong." Hardison answered, not taking his eyes off Eliot.

"I couldn't… smell him…" Eliot insisted. "And the wolf just… freaked…"

No one knew how to respond to that.

"You couldn't smell him?" Sophie asked, her voice more gentle than Hardison could remember her directing at any of them except Parker.

Eliot was breathing steadily now, matching Parker's breathing pattern. "Ever since I turned I identify people by smell even more than sight. Even in a crowd I can identify what smell is coming from which person." He let out an almost shaky breath. "His smell was masked completely, it was like he wasn't there, but he was… and he could have been anyone and I wouldn't have known it." He looked next to him, a slightly shaking hand reaching out for the balloon crown on Parker's head. "And he was right next to Parker."

Parker took off the offending crown, letting it drop to the side and leaned back against Eliot.

"Parker, take Eliot back to the van. Make sure he's okay then you and Hardison finish your part of the con." Eliot started to protest but Nate interrupted him, his voice just a hint firmer, the tone Hardison knew meant they were supposed to shut up and do as told. "Eliot, go back to the van but stay on the coms. You need to be able to get to them if they need you but we can't afford you flipping out again." There was a pause and Hardison thought Eliot might argue further when Nate repeated. "Eliot. Go."

Eliot let out a breath almost like a hiss or a growl, turning to do as told, and Hardison could have almost sworn he saw a flash of gold from Eliot's eyes.

Hardison forced his attention back on the con, forced himself to stop thinking about what just happened, to try to focus on earlier the afternoon.

But none of it seemed like laughing matters anymore.


	6. Purple

****

****

Notes:

For the Bruises Square on my H/c Bingo Card

* * *

**Purple**

* * *

Purple was the color of grape candy and odd houses.

Purple was the color of her bike. The one her brother was riding when he died.

When she was eight she had a foster sister who only dressed in purple. She doesn't remember her name but she remembers she was always angry.

Like Eliot when he first turned. No. She didn't want to think about that right now.

Purple was a hurt color. The color of bruises and black eyes and the dresses of the dolls that one foster father gave her After.

It was the color of the marks she'd seen on Eliot's neck two days after they got back from the job at the county fair where everything had gone wrong. She'd caught him off guard in his training studio. He'd been wearing high collared shirts since the morning after they got back.

She told Sophie that she thought something was wrong. They looked different than hikkies and Eliot kept touching them like they hurt.

Sophie wasn't supposed to act like the purple was a good thing.

Claiming. She'd said. Eliot had found an Alpha.

Parker didn't like the sound of someone claiming Eliot. He was theirs already.

This alpha had stolen Eliot, or was trying to.

But Sophie told her that a werewolf needed a pack and Eliot not telling them just meant he was having trouble making the adjustment and they needed to give him space and time to work things out.

So Parker promised not to mention it and to give Eliot space.

And it seemed to be okay. Eliot came in at the same time he always did, though he wasn't around as often at night or over the weekends but he kept his phone with him and on.

He'd started to seem a little less angry and a little more comfortable. During the briefing for the next job he told Nate they needed to find someone else to play one of his parts, that he hadn't had enough time in small spaces yet to be sure that the claustrophobia wouldn't cause 'the wolf' to freak out. He was also able to warn them of a couple little stumbling blocks when dealing with him, things Parker _guessed_ they might need to thank his new alpha for.

And he lost that tired _lonelylost_ look he'd been carrying around since he turned.

It had almost made Parker happy.

A month passed. Eliot took the three days of the full moon off, uncomfortably telling them he had indeed found an alpha and that his alpha was taking him out of the city, into a deep backwoods area away from people, and teaching him how to hunt. He'd be out of reach of cellphones and coms but would check in every day at the closest town.

Parker could tell Nate hated letting him go, but couldn't really ask him to stay.

He'd come back looking blue and green, live colors, calm and smooth and good colors. He'd moved like red. Wild.

Like somewhere out in the woods he'd let the wolf out and inside of him.

He smelled like forests and rain now, his old apple shampoo smell gone.

Parker had been *almost* ready to agree to duel custody of Eliot with his mysterious alpha. She didn't like it but he had seemed happier.

Then she'd come into headquarters late one night a week after the full moon and saw a light from Eliot's studio.

She'd gone in through the air ducts, intending to try to sneak up on him like always, a game she'd been playing with him since they'd first become a team.

She hadn't even dropped out of the air duct when she heard a hiss of pain. She moved, trying to get a glimpse of him, suddenly worried.

When she did catch sight of him she had to bite back bile rising in her throat and something shouting in her hurt angry place.

His shirt was off, bruises splashing across his torso overlaying faded green and yellow.

And there on his neck she could see fresh purple.

She opened the grate and slipped down into the room, making sure her feet made enough noise that she wouldn't surprise Eliot.

Eliot turned toward her, hand already reaching for the shirt on the table next to him.

She shook her head, holding up her hands. She wasn't going to ask. She already was pretty sure she knew. "Tell me not to tell Nate and Sophie and I won't." She told him. He'd been hurt. She knew what it meant to be hurt, knew sometimes you didn't want people to know. That sometimes that just made things worse.

And it was Eliot.

His alpha wouldn't be hurting him a second time. He would know better.

Eliot's shoulders slumped, hurting, tired again…

"I won't tell." She said, moving closer slowly. "But I wanna help." He was her's, their's, and she would try to undo the damage the alpha had done to him.

Besides, she knew what to do about purple.

The fact Eliot didn't argue worried her. It wasn't right. He was always supposed to be angry. He was always supposed to argue.

But he just sat down on the stool and braced his hands on his knees.

His knuckles weren't bruised, but maybe Werewolves didn't get bruised knuckles when they fought.

She got icepacks and ace bandage for his wrist and felt for damaged ribs and wished she was Sophie and knew what to say that would make him stop looking so defeated.

She could treat the bruises on his body.

She didn't know what to do about the other ones.


	7. Breathe

**Notes: **For the Domestic Abuse: Physical square on my H/C Bingo card. As one might expect **Warning: Depiction of domestic abuse, one mention of dub-con**

* * *

**Breathe**

* * *

_Breathe._

He took a breath, quieting the noise inside his head, quieting the wolf's whimpers, quieting the part of him that wanted to whimper with it.

He glanced backwards, listening out of habit, hand resting on the door knob.

Another breath in and he forced his eyes back front and he opened the door, stepping through, hearing it shut behind him.

_Breathe._

He wasn't sure how he got here.

It had started… how had it started?

Was it the night after they got back from the county fair when Jacob was waiting for him outside his apartment building with a grin and confidence that Eliot wouldn't say no when he asked to come inside?

Was it when they first met jogging or when Eliot had first smelled him on the roof of Nate's building?

Or was it in Nowhere Land Middle America when he made a gambit to save Parker's life and nearly lost his own in the process?

Had that one event really meant he'd end up here or had he taken a wrong turn somewhere?

Since when did he believe in fate?

_Breathe._

It had seemed like fate when he first met Jacob. Every fiber of his changing body had sung with a sensation he had no name for when Jacob had shown up, running next to him with the same easy grace and power only werewolves could muster.

He'd touched Eliot's shoulder and the wolf in him had nearly taken hold with just the sheer force of _needpackalphahome. _

Jacob had been a lone wolf, but one ready to settle down. Boston had no pack, it was why he'd come there in the first place, and with Eliot as his Beta Jacob had been sure they could build a pack that would be a force to be reckoned with.

Eliot told him he couldn't leave his team, his family, that they worked to help people and depended on him for safety and his Wolf was just as protective of him as he was.

Jacob had told him that was alright, that he could respect, even admire, that Eliot had taken on such a noble cause and wouldn't want to get in the way of that. Eliot could do whatever he needed to do to protect his team and, if he did become Jacob's beta, when they built a pack the pack would adopt his family. Even if something were to happen to him they would protect his family for him.

He hadn't agreed then, hadn't been willing to be claimed, hadn't been willing to bond with an alpha, to submit.

But time had worn him down, time spent walking through the world never knowing fully what was going on in his head or body and what would trigger his instincts next.

Time spent feeling alone no matter how close the team was.

And then the fair had happened.

He'd come back and Jacob had been waiting for him at his apartment.

He'd let Jacob inside and they'd talked. They'd laughed.

And it had felt so fucking right.

Late that night, when they'd drunk a bottle of Jack between them and it was late enough Jacob either had to leave or crash on his sofa, Jacob had put his hand on Eliot's shoulder.

They had gone silent and the air shifted and Jacob had asked him if he'd thought about the offer. He'd let his hand move to cup Eliot's cheek, gentle in a way that caught Eliot off guard.

He was used to it being rough and tumble, especially the times he'd been with guys. When you lived like he did and played the character he did and slept with the people he did you expected it rough. He liked it that way.

But Jacob had been so careful, so gentle, offering a single chaste kiss that promised so much more.

Eliot hadn't known how to respond at first.

"I promise to guide you on our path, to protect you from the storm, and keep you close to my heart, no matter where we may run." The words were old, echoing of tradition, of languages that died long before the two of them had been born, and a magic of a kind that flowed through their veins.

The wolf inside of him howled in response, pushing him to respond, driving him closer to Jacob.

And he was so tired of fighting this.

He had lowered his eyes and cocked his head to the side, showing his neck.

He knew the bite that followed should have hurt, but it didn't.

It had felt too right, too much like fate, too much like everything would be okay, for the pain to even register.

_Breathe._

That was how it had started.

Sex had followed. The kind he was used to, though the improved stamina of werewolves apparently applied to much more than just being able to run longer distances.

He'd woken up in the morning, worn out, loose limbed, tired in the best ways.

And in Jacob's arms.

That was new.

And the feeling like he was safe…

That was something he didn't know what to do with.

So he'd gotten up and made breakfast.

_Breathe, turn on the car, drive._

At first it had it had seemed so natural, so easy.

He'd get up and make breakfast for two, chat with Jacob, and they'd leave. Jacob would head off to his job and Eliot would head into Nate's. They'd do their usual in between business, doing recon or working on aliases or whatever. He'd stay his usual time and head home. If they were doing a job he'd do whatever part he had to and hang around if he might be needed.

Sometimes he'd call Jacob when he got home and he'd make dinner for two. Sometimes Jacob would call and Eliot would eat dinner alone before heading out to meet him somewhere.

Sometimes they'd end the night together at one of their apartments. Sometimes they'd go their separate ways.

But it always felt *right*, always settled the wolf in his mind, settled his nerves.

They never went a day without seeing each other, Nate hadn't taken any jobs outside of Boston since Eliot had been turned.

_Find a place to park._

Things had been so easy. So natural.

Two weeks after he and Jacob got together the team finished a second job pretty late in the evening. Added to that Eliot had taken a couple more knocks than usual and their post job celebration turning into a movie night while Hardison tried to correct the 'utter tragedy' that was Parker having never seen The Princess Bride and by the time Eliot got home he went straight to bed.

The next night Jacob was waiting for him when he got back to his apartment.

The anger from the normally mellow werewolf caught him off guard.

How much it scared his wolf knocked him off balance.

He let them inside the apartment, already getting chewed out by Jacob for not calling, for worrying him, for not thinking of how Jacob felt, wondering if Eliot had made it through the job alive.

Eliot had smirked, trying to settle his upset Alpha, getting halfway through a jokeing remark about being hard to kill when Jacob smacked him across the face.

The force of the blow sent him stumbling back, a werewolf not holding back could put more force into a slap than any thug could put into a roundhouse kick, half crashing into the kitchen counter.

The wolf whimpered, pulling for him to back down, tuck his tail between his legs, show his throat, submit to his alpha and hope it would placate him. The force of the bond they'd established, the force of an alpha's will over their beta, all but forced him to his knees, pain radiating out from his chest like the fact his alpha was angry at him was enough to cause pain.

What they hell had he gotten himself into?

Then as suddenly as the blow had come Jacob was there, in front of him, remorse written across his face, apologizing. He half babbled words about worrying, about being upset, about being sorry.

Jacob helped him stand and find a seat, got him an ice pack despite Eliot's protests that he didn't need one (he was a werewolf too, the blow may have been enough to crack a human's cheekbone but he wasn't human anymore), and a cold beer. Jacob buzzed about, putting on a football game, insisting on trying to make dinner for once, still spluttering apologies.

Eliot recognized a pattern he'd seen before. The anger, the blow, the quick and flustered apology.

He wasn't stupid.

But it was just once. Just one smack that wasn't even enough to leave a bruise. They were both physical people and Jacob couldn't possibly have had the training Eliot had to keep his temper under control.

And Eliot didn't want to give this up if this was just a fluke. He'd had worse from partners than just a slap, it was always rough, and he wasn't ready to go back to the way he'd been living before.

If he was honest with himself he knew his wolf had been breaking under the strain of being a lone wolf so long and probably wouldn't survive going back to that this soon.

And if he was really honest with himself he knew he wouldn't survive it much better.

He had stayed.

_Turn off the car, get out, lock it. Ignore the stares._

It was that night that Jacob had suggested they go hunting over the full moon.

It was the next day he'd told the team he'd found an alpha. He knew they already knew but he couldn't pretend otherwise forever.

And maybe it was him trying to convince himself he was making the right choice.

The trip into the wild had been…

Looking back he couldn't quite put into words what it had been like. Driving for hours into the middle of nowhere, leaving the truck and all their stuff at the end of some one lane dirt road and leaving the path, running through the forest at a speed no human could match until they were so deep into the woods they couldn't even smell the road, so deep they couldn't smell even a trace of humans.

Then waiting for night to come.

Jacob had held him as the sun went down, telling him that changes would get easier the longer he was a wolf. Never easy. But easier. They were harder for Eliot than most because he'd been turned so late in life unlike Jacob who'd been turned as a teen or those born into a pack.

They ran together through the night, hunting and playing and running just for the sake of feeling the wind in their fur and miles disappearing underfoot and having that whole world to explore.

They woke up in a heap after dawn.

And despite the pain of the change Eliot couldn't wait for night to fall.

_Breathe. Let yourself in with your key._

It had been hard coming back to the city, leaving behind the forest, but Jacob promised to take him back there every full moon.

The wolf was quiet in Eliot's head then. Not quiet just… faded. Somewhere in the wild he felt like he'd finally started to connect with the wolf, to recognize it not as a separate entity, but a part of himself. It made his instincts stronger, but it made him feel stronger as well. Like he was a werewolf, and not a human mind trapped in a werewolf's body.

He'd finally started to accept the change on a different level.

Two days later he got the stuffing knocked out of him on the job, proving guys with baseball bats could in fact get enough force to bruise a werewolf.

Even if the bruises would heal quickly he was still sore and tired.

When Jacob called, telling Eliot to meet him for dinner and to bring an overnight bag Eliot told him no.

He was tired. He was hurting. He knew his body needed rest. He'd explained that to Jacob.

Jacob had shown up at his apartment four hours later, pounding on the door, waking Eliot up from much needed sleep.

Eliot let him in, surprised and somewhat horrified to discover it wasn't the wolf in his head cowering before a pissed off alpha.

It was him trying his best not to give into the desire to do just that.

He made the mistake of telling Jacob to calm down.

The blow to the face was only a little surprising.

The kick to the ribs knocked him off his feet.

Adrinalin and instincts shot through him, the wolf and the wolf part of his mind overriding him. He pulled away, didn't fight back, curling around himself to try to protect himself from serious damage as blows kept coming.

He had heard Jacob speaking, but not processed the words. Heard him rant about privileges, about giving him freedom, about letting him live his own life and Eliot just taking more and more.

When darkness started to edge around his vision he let himself go still, faking unconsciousness while trying to get his body back under his own control, trying to process what the hell had happened and ignore the part of his mind screaming 'told you so' and mocking him for letting himself become a victim.

The blows stopped but hands dragged him upright and teeth bit into the crook of his neck, Jacob reclaiming him.

He knew it shouldn't have hurt much compared to the rest of his injuries.

But it did.

_Climb the stairs. _

Jacob had trashed the kitchen before leaving, before Eliot could force himself to move to try to…

He didn't even know what.

The last time hadn't been a fluke. Hadn't been an accident.

Jacob had just shown he was capable of beating him until he passed out and leaving and Eliot knew with the bond between an Alpha and Beta like this he was literally unable to fight back. He knew this pattern, he knew it would only get worse, and he knew better than to live in denial that none of that was true.

If he stayed with Jacob now he wouldn't be a victim.

And as much as he hated the word he'd rather leave a victim than stay and be a knowing volunteer.

He got up and left the apartment, unwilling to face the ruin that had been made of his kitchen and life in general. Nate's place had stuff he could clean himself up with.

And maybe if the others saw him like this they'd know to stop him from doing something stupid. They always tried to but into his life after all.

Why not for his own good for once?

If it weren't for his bruised ribs he would have laughed at that thought. He was already mentally mocking himself for getting into this mess.

He went to the empty apartment he'd turned into a training studio, patching himself up, only mildly surprised when Parker showed up.

She'd promised not to tell Sophie and Nate, no doubt ever showing on her face that he would take care of this himself if he hadn't already.

He told himself in the morning he'd call Jacob and tell him they were done.

But even as he felt Parker checking him for broken ribs Eliot could hear his inner wolf telling him to wait a few days, try to find someplace safe to go, someone safe to go to, and then leave Jacob.

He had a few days, even a few weeks if he was careful, to figure out what to do next.

_Stop. Don't keep going up the stairs. Go down this hallway. _

In the morning Jacob called his cell, apologizing again.

Eliot came back home to find his apartment had been cleaned, the broken bits from his kitchen replaced or at least gone, and Jacob there cooking his favorite breakfast.

He explained he'd been upset, that Eliot had been abusing the free reign that Jacob had been giving him, that he was sorry for losing it but it was time Eliot started to learn what it meant to be a beta.

Eliot had nodded along, smiling and mouthing the right words, planning in his head how to get away, how to get out, but leaning into the gentle touches Jacob gave him unconsciously.

Jacob moved the conversation on and somehow it was suddenly like nothing had happened.

They were talking again and laughing again and the wolf felt safe and Eliot told himself he had to leave.

He wouldn't be a volunteer.

That day he got Hardison to give him the number for his hacker friend.

It was three days before he forced himself to call her and ask her how to break the bond between him and Jacob.

She had told him about The Beta's Choice.

She had told him it was as simple and difficult as walking away.

The next day he'd met Jacob for dinner and told him they were through, that he was leaving, that he wasn't going to voluntarily be Jacob's victim.

As he'd walked away Jacob had followed him, calling after him.

Eliot hadn't let himself hear, hadn't let himself heed it, forced down the bile in his throat and the way the wolf and his own mind were screaming, feeling like he was cutting off a part of himself with a blunt blade.

"So you're willing to go back to the way you were when I met you? A stray dog? Lonely? Lost? No one you care about understanding what you're going through? You're a beta Eliot, you won't last alone." He stopped, almost against his will. Jacob catching up, putting a hand on his shoulder, thumb pressing against the mark on his neck. "And don't think you'll find someone else who'll be more understanding. A beta's place is by his alpha. I was being nice letting you go off with that team of yours. I thought it was cute you were trying to do good, make up for all the lives you've taken." His breath left in a hiss of surprise. He'd been telling Jacob more and more but he'd never talked about his past that much. "I know. I can smell the blood on you still. You stink of human deaths. But you're trying to change and I was willing to allow it. But you keep abusing the privileges I give you. You're never around to help me build a pack." The thumb pressed harder. "If you find any other alphas I promise you they won't be as understanding as I've been."

Eliot forced a breath to enter and leave his body and he took a step forward, making himself break away from Jacob.

As simple and as difficult as just walking away.

"Go home." Jacob told him. "Think about just what you're willing to give up."

_Breathe. Knock. Louder. They can't hear like you can._

He'd gone home.

He'd promised himself he'd walk away and fucking keep walking next time.

At three in the morning Jacob let himself into the apartment.

Eliot had told him to leave.

Jacob had told him to be quiet, that he had just come to be with Eliot, to show him it didn't have to be painful.

Later Eliot wouldn't even know if he'd given consent to the sex they'd had willingly or because the wolf in his head was running scared and Jacob was hitting him and Eliot's goal had been to get them to a point he could walk away.

He just knew it was something he wasn't going to think about later, shove it into the back of his mind with all the other times he'd been under duress and had done things he wasn't proud of.

He did know that after Jacob's breath slowed and he dropped into deep sleep Eliot had slid out from the hold that no longer made him feel absurdly, ridiculously, safe, pulled on a pair of jeans, grabbed a shirt and his keys, and forced himself to walk out the door.

_Someone was coming._

The door opened and Nate was there, looking like he'd been sleeping.

It was late, probably past four. Eliot could smell dawn in the air.

Nate looked at him, probably seeing the ragged expression, the mismatched clothing not even quite reaching basic necessities, the complete lack of shoes that hadn't even registered to Eliot until now, the bruises peaking out over the collar and around his wrist.

"Come in." Nate said. "Just tell me that you're not going back this time."

Eliot could have laughed. Nate knew. Of course Nate knew.

But no sound came out of his mouth.

A hand settled on his shoulder, guiding him in, leading him to the kitchen, to sit down on a stool.

Nate moved somewhere behind him, making tea from the smells and sounds but Eliot couldn't make himself care.

Minutes passed and a warm mug of tea was placed into his hands and Nate entered his line of vision. "Did you take the Choice?"

Eliot took a drink from the tea, grounding himself in the present, pushing away the chaos of his human mind rejecting this scenario and the noise of the wolf part of his brain. "Don't know." He mumbled. "I waited for him ta be sleeping before walking away."

Nate nodded, glancing back over his clothes before shaking his head. "Parker stole some of your clothes after you went back to him last time. I've got them in a bag upstairs if you want to change."

It was a sign that he'd been working with Parker too long that he hadn't even noticed a set of clothes going missing. She regularly stole stuff from them, giving it back when asked or putting it back when she stole something else.

Eliot nodded mutely, heading up the stairs and following Nate's direction to his closet.

He could hear Nate on his cell downstairs, probably calling the others, probably saying 'lets go steal us an Eliot' or something disgusting like that.

He took a shower before changing, feeling the need to wash Jacob off him before letting the others see him.

And maybe he took the chance to stand there under the water and just let it beat down on him until it drowned out everything else he was feeling.

When he got back downstairs Hardison and Parker were already there.

Neither said anything. Hardison kept working on something on his laptop, Parker picking her locks.

Somehow the normalness made him feel a little better despite the tension in the room.

Like they were waiting for something to explode.

He half wondered if Parker had a Taser hidden in her box of locks and plans to use it on him if he made a move to leave.

The fact he wouldn't put it past her shouldn't have put a smile on his face.

Nate handed him the mug of tea back (reheated from the feel of it) and told him to sit on a stool and take it easy, gently questioning him about his injuries and what had happened in the past few hours.

Gently like he was questioning a client.

Eliot answered some of his questions, mostly about his injuries, ignoring the ones he didn't want to answer. The ones he wouldn't think about to answer.

For once Nate didn't pressure him.

Hardison broke his silence to bring up the alarm. "He's here. Nate. Jacob just let himself in the back door. He's heading up."

Oh god.

Nate's hand settled on his shoulder. "Easy. We've got you. We're not letting you go back with him."

Tense seconds passed and then the door was opening and Jacob was walking in, anger and ire and wild, his eyes bright gold, taking in the space and focusing on Eliot. "It's not nice to sneak off like that." The wolf cringed back and Eliot winced. "I'm here to take you home."

"He is home." Nate stated firmly. "He's not going anywhere with you."

Jacob gave a barking laugh. "A beta's home is wherever his alpha is. That's me. You're just his team, his co workers, the friends I let him have out of sufferance. You have no claim over him."

"We knew him first." Parker said almost growling like she was trying to make herself wolflike. She stood, moving to place herself between Jacob and Eliot. "You tried to steal him. And that's my job. Not yours."

"And we're more than a team." Hardison said as he moved to stand beside Parker. "We're a family."

"We're pack." Sophie said, slipping into the room from behind Jacob, her voice ice cold defensive. She walked in between Parker and Hardison, standing next to Nate behind Eliot, putting a hand on his other shoulder. "We" She paused a beat for emphasis. "Are Eliot's pack."

Eliot felt his breath leave in a rush, the wolf, and his brain, and everywhere they had mixed stopping, focusing, entire world narrowing to the hands on his shoulders and the man standing at the door.

"Eliot is my beta." Nate said, the words bouncing around his skull, the feel of old magic hissing through his blood.

"Eliot is our beta." Sophie said in turn, the hand not on his shoulder moving to take Nate's, signaling they were the pack's Alpha pair.

Jacob laughed but there was a note of hysterics in it. "You… you're human. You can't be his pack or his alphas. Besides. He's still mine. Unless you want to challenge me for him th-"

Eliot stood, walking forward, passing Parker and Hardison as they parted to let him through.

He stood, just inches from Jacob, looking up to meet those blue and gold eyes with his own. "This is my pack Jacob, my home. You are not welcome here."

He turned around and took a step back to Nate and Sophie and something inside him snapped.

He dropped forward to his knees, gasping for breath at the resurgence of the _lostcoldalone _feeling, as every bruise on his body shouted for his attention, as his wolf shrieked in sudden pain of severing the connection.

Then hands were on his shoulders again, helping him to his feet, Nate quietly, calmly speaking the old pact. "I promise to guide you on our path, to protect you from the storm, and keep you close to my heart, no matter where we may run."

He locked eyes with Nate, nodding, letting out a shaky breath, almost turning when he felt breath against his neck but keeping still, letting Sophie place a single, gentle, kiss over the mark Jacob had left just days ago before moving to make a claim of her own.

It hurt a little, but in a way he needed that, needed it to be different. Needed it to feel like something.

His body felt like it was humming, his senses exploding outward and falling inward, hyperaware of the others, of his pack, but at the same time no more than before. There was a moment of brutal clarity when he realized they had always been his pack, even before he'd been a werewolf. That they were safe around him when he changed because they had been there during that first change and his wolf had learned their smells, introduced to them as pack. Sophie and Nate had been protecting him however they could like alphas even as he protected the team.

They had always been his pack, his wolf had just been waiting for them to stake their claim.

Sophie stepped away and back, smiling at him before sliding an arm around his waist, closing the distance between them. Nate stood on his other side, arm settling around his shoulders, fingers brushing the mark Sophie had just made sending a jolt down Eliot's spine.

With Parker and Hardison moving to stand with them they turned to where Jacob was just beginning to push himself back to his feet, the aftershock of losing a beta just beginning to wear off.

"Go away Jacob." Nate said in that voice that held no doubt it would be obeyed. "You have three days to leave Boston and never return. This is our city, home of our pack. If you stay you'll find we can be… territorial."

"If Eliot so much as sees you…" Sophie added, her voice trailing off but the threat implicit on her voice.

Jacob's expression was a mix of shock, disbelief, and growing horror as he looked between them. It seemed to be starting to sink in that his now ex beta had a pack that had him outnumbered and looked quite ready to take revenge to the injury done to their beta.

Eliot wondered if the stories he'd heard as a human about the beta being the member of the pack for whom all the others had the strongest protective instinct for were true and if Jacob didn't quite realize his pack was made of humans with different instincts. Then again the air in the room told him perhaps not too different.

Disentangling himself from Nate and Sophie, a feat he'd never really thought he'd have to attempt before today, Eliot took a step forward. He took a breath, letting the wolf guide him, gathering the strength of everything that had been, everything that had driven him from Jacob back to the team, through the choice.

"Jacob." He said, his voice humming with the same old magic that formed and broke their bonds. "Leave this place. Never come back."

Wordlessly Jacob turned, walking out of the apartment in an almost daze as the power that had been used and abused on Eliot was turned back around, giving him the ability to send his former alpha away.

He let out a breath, the apartment still and silent, his insides twisted into some painful sort of knot that it would take time to acknowledge and process and deal with.

But a hand settled on each of his shoulders and Parker and Hardison stood together somewhere behind him and it felt like everything. The abuse, the love that came before it, the fair where things hurt, the changes he'd been through, the night everything changed, that job in nowherevill America where they'd gone to save a bunch of orphans and runaways with a pack mentality, and another job long before that in Chicago that should have been a walkaway but wasn't…

It felt like it had all led him here, to this apartment, to this moment, to these hands on his shoulders, to this feeling that even though everything had changed he would always have this pack, this family.

And, for a moment, he closed his eyes and just breathed.


	8. Moving Forward

**Notes: **For the "Old World Medicine" Square on my H/c bingo card

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**Moving Forward**

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It was quiet the moment after Jacob left.

Standing there together, surrounding Eliot, finally claiming him as theirs and taking that step they should have taken the first night.

And this sense of belonging, of togetherness, of the safety of numbers and having a family at your back surged around him and Nate hoped that it was what Eliot was feeling.

Then Parker and Hardison turned their attention entirely onto Eliot. Parker was muttering softly about how it's a good thing he didn't make her go and steal him and how clearly there was something wrong with him. Hardison was being conspicuously mostly quiet. They'd all known for a while but Hardison was having the toughest time getting his mind around what had happened.

Together they tried to get Eliot to sit back down, Hardison saying something about getting him an ice pack.

The bruises from the beating Eliot had taken before he left were just starting to hit their peak. One of the things they'd learned since Eliot turned was that it could take several hours for a bruise to completely show on a werewolf but the worst of the swelling usually came not long before the original injury finished healing itself. There'd still be some pain and swelling for a few more hours but the worst was over.

Nate let out a breath, letting himself sit back and give Parker and Hardison that moment, repeating that thought to himself.

The worst was over.

All that was left was to undo the damage and move forward.

Sophie put a hand on his shoulder. They were still working things out, still trying to figure out the thing between them. Something had changed the night they stood vigil over what the team lost when Eliot turned and kept changing.

He wasn't sure when they'd reached this point, or if they'd actually reached it at all, but he knew when Jacob walked through that door and they laid their claim over Eliot together the bond between them had finally been acknowledged.

And now it bound not only the two of them, but Eliot, and the rest of the team.

He raised a hand to cover Sophie's, looking over to her, seeing the relief in her eyes that she was too good a grifter to showcase like the others.

They had talked about Jacob, shared their slow growing horror at the bruises, caught the way Eliot had flinched the last time Nate had gotten annoyed. There were wounds that needed tending and not just the physical kind. Not to mention the entire episode showed all too well that some of what they'd all thought were just scars were actually injuries Eliot had left, or been forced to leave, to fester for far too long.

Things were about to change again. Being Eliot's pack had ramifications they didn't even imagine yet. He was already trying to figure out if maybe they would just make living in this building together official. Haridson already lived here, Parker practically did, Sophie was staying over more and more now…

"Nate." Sophie said softly, calling him back from his planning. He looked to her, following her gaze over to where Eliot was letting himself (though not without protest) be manhandled by Parker in her attempt to get his shirt off so she could make use of the first aid kit she'd retrieved from god only knew where and the old home-remedy bruise cream Eliot had made and given to her after the Boston Weather Tower incident. "Plan later. We have other matters for the moment."

Nate nodded. "Alright." He approached the odd trio. "Time for you to get out of here so we can clean up." He gestured toward the door. Parker and Hardison made faces but by some miracle seemed to decide to follow directions for once, turning to head out.

Eliot was already attempting to push himself to his feet, his face carefully set to neutral.

Nate let out a sigh, mentally congratulating himself for his continued difficulty communicating before stepping forward, reaching over the back of the couch, and placing a hand on the hitter's shoulder. "Stay."

"'m not your dog Nate." Eliot growled, though he sat back down and didn't move again.

And it didn't disguise the look of relief and the way he'd relaxed at the word.

"No, you're our beta." Sophie said coming around the couch to sit next to him, a hand reaching out, fingertips just barely touching the mark her claiming had left on his neck. The action sent a shiver down Eliot's spine, his head dropping forward just a little. "That means we take care of you. You've been hurt. Let us help." She move her hand to tuck a strand of still damp hair away from Eliot's bruised face. "Relax, we've got you."

Eliot's only response was a short, shaking, breath. The toll of the last few hours seemed to be hitting him hard and even though Nate knew he'd been through enough, more than enough, in his lifetime to be able to push through and function normally if he needed to…

Eliot didn't.

Nate gave the shoulder his hand still rested on the slightest squeeze. "Do you think you could make it up stairs?"

Eliot nodded, turning to look back. The grin on his face was forced but it was welcome none the less. "What? Not even going to buy me a drink first?"

It was about the lamest one liner Nate had ever heard Eliot give but considering the circumstances Nate would let it pass.

And the look in Eliot's eyes, not so much even a feeling but the absence of it the kind Eliot wore to protect himself, gave Nate pause. He didn't even know what it was, what it meant or if it was from just the sheer force of everything or something that would make Nate want to let Parker unleash her sad-angry place on Jacob.

Nate didn't know where there relationship would lead, though the fact that by werewolf standards him and Sophie claiming Eliot together might have well have stated they were the alpha pair of the pack and mates which had it's own implications.

And alright, he wouldn't exactly mind sharing a relationship with their beta.

But that was later, when Eliot's physical wounds had healed and they had managed to map out the extent of the emotional ones left by this episode.

And even then sex and anything of the sort would be out of the question until he knew what had put that forced numb look in Eliot's eyes and the issues had been resolved.

And they were sure it was through Eliot's thick skull that being their beta didn't mean he couldn't say no when the subject was raised.

"Now, now." Sophie admonished gently, almost teasingly. "Talk like that will give our pack a bad name."

Eliot retorted about how a pack of thieves didn't need help getting a bad reputation but Nate could see him relax just a bit more at the words, the reminder of what he now had.

How could it have taken them this long…

"We're going to be doing our job." Nate said simply. "Helping you get you what you need to heal."

"First aid kit's right here."

Nate shared a look with Sophie. In the space between them, in the still lingering tension in Eliot's shoulders, and in the way his own nerves were slowly settling like they did when a plan came together Nate read the future unfolding with the same surety and lack of certainty as any job.

"Not what we meant." Sophie said, though she did pick up the things Parker had left behind to bring with them. "Something a bit more… traditional?" She glanced back toward Nate like she wasn't sure that was the proper word.

"I'd say old fashioned." He suggested as he came around to help pull Eliot to his feet.

"Yes, a bit of a more old fashioned medical treatment. A famous remedy, for all wounds."

Neither of them said anything more as they helped Eliot up the stairs and laid him down on Nate's bed, Sophie settling pillows and comforters around him as Nate finished what first aid could be given.

"What's the treatment?" Eliot finally asked as he was beginning to drift, only holding onto wakefulness because he was who he was.

"Time." Sophie whispered, stroking his hair. "And people who care watching over you."

"Sleep, Eliot." Nate ordered gently. Their werewolf had already slipped into sleep by the time Nate added. "We'll be here when you wake up."

Sophie came to sit next to him, her hand folding over his. "We're not going anywhere."


	9. Thise Who Are Found

**Notes:** For the "Head Trauma" Square on my H/c Bingo Card

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**Those Who Are Found**

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"You're exhausted man. Go with Sophie. Get some sleep. We'll let you know the moment anything happens." Hardison tried giving the worried werewolf a nudge toward the door, unsurprisingly without success.

Eliot open his mouth to object, or maybe just try to remind them *again* of something, but Parker interrupted. "We know. Every hour. Name, location, birthday. We've only done this a couple dozen times for you remember?"

Hardison gave a slight grin, trying to lighten the situation. "Well, head traumas do tend to lead to memory loss so he might not." When Eliot didn't even growl in annoyance Hardison sobered, glancing back toward the still figure lying on the bed. "He's going to be alright. It was just a minor head injury. You've been awake since the full moon the day before yesterday. Go find Sophie. Make sure she get some sleep."

Parker stepped forward, whispering something in Eliot's ear and his shoulders sagged just a little. He hesitated another moment before slipping out of the room and down the stairs.

"What did you tell him?" Hardison asked, settling on a chair a little closer to the bed and lowering his voice.

"That if he didn't go I'd tell Nate and Sophie that he wasn't taking care of himself and they'd both blame themselves for it." Parker answered, perching on the back of the other chair.

Hardison gave Parker a look, startled. Some days she showed hints of understanding humans a lot better than she let on. Though arguably understanding that guilting Eliot into taking care of himself because otherwise Nate and Sophie would feel bad about being hurt and having to do wrap up wasn't normal human interaction. Especially since Eliot was a werewolf and Nate and Sophie were his alphas and that whole mess hadn't settled into his mind even after a month.

Hardison stared at the wall just above the clock, his computer laying forgotten nearby. He always hated these all night vigils, they seemed to happen more often than was healthy for the team. Eliot was normally on the receiving end but they'd all been here at some point.

A line of work where concussions weren't an occupational hazard normally started seeming nice right around the second hour into his shift, though in recent months Parker had started sitting with him through his shift for reasons that only made sense to her.

The company was welcome, even if they couldn't talk much, the presence in the room kept the fears another close call like this brought up at bay.

His mind wandered back over the past few months. He was a master of not thinking about things but at times like this there seemed little choice. He found himself remembering other vigils.

One in a small town in Nowhereland Middle America where he'd stayed up half the night waiting for first Parker then eventually Eliot to wander into his room to just do something together instead of trying to go to sleep while staring at unfamiliar walls in an empty hotel room after being reminded of times when they'd lost everything and had no one, and the fear that might happen again.

Just days later, staring at the iron door of the panic room, listening, waiting, praying for some sign that things would be alright. That Eliot would pull through this fight just like all the others.

Leaving Nate to his coffee and crossword puzzle, waiting for Eliot to come down from the roof, all of them waiting for the changes to stop hurting him in ways they didn't even fully understand.

And the long, agonizing, infuriating, wait for Eliot to say something, do *something*. Watching for bruises that weren't from a fight, watching for that flinch and just a moment of hesitation, fear, that should never have been there.

Nate and Sophie said they couldn't do anything until Eliot was ready to leave Jacob.

Hardison still couldn't understand how someone so… Eliot… could let things go on like that.

Nate stirred in his sleep, mumbling something, the tone matching the one he had when things were just starting to spiral out and he was making things up as he went.

Parker moved, sliding off her chair to crouch next to the bed, arms resting inches from Nate's head as she leaned forward. "Everything's okay alpha, we're all safe back at the den. Eliot's taken care of and the job's done."

Hardison was about to question Parker's use of the term that now occasionally slipped into Eliot's speech when he was distracted or rushed, and caution Parker about startling Nate but the man was already settling.

Parker went back to her chair, giving Hardison that smile, the real one, like she'd just figured out how to crack a difficult lock.

And maybe she had.

She got up and moved her chair closer to his, actually sitting in it and leaning against his shoulder and he smiled.

There was still everything he wasn't thinking about, and everything he didn't understand. There were still issues to be resolved with the werewolf thing and the issues it caused and brought to light. They were still a ragtag bunch of misfits for whom concussions and far worse injuries were occupational hazards and they would have to wake Nate up in eighteen minutes to make sure their mastermind wasn't going brain-dead.

But Parker was with him and he was starting to understand why.

And if, in eighteen minutes, when Nate woke up groggy and disoriented, asking with a hint of panic why it was them instead of Eliot waking him up Hardison repeats Parker's assurances, slipping the word alpha into his speech Nate had the grace to pretend he doesn't remember in the morning.

But in that one word there is acknowledgement of something.

They were more than a team. They were a family.

They were a pack.


	10. How Hard it Rains

**Note:** This was written for the special February Challenge over on H/c Bingo. The prompts used were PTSD, Body Hatred, Rape/recovery, and Werewolf: Silver poisoning.  
Other than a special fic set in this universe (but not actually in the storyline) this is the last story I plan on writting for this verse. That being said it's entierly possible I will return if the plot bunnies return to this.

**Warnings: Mentions of domestic abuse, non-con, dub-con, and underage (17) dub-con. While none of it is actually shown this story deals with the fall out.**

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**How Hard it Rains**

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The rain against the window had a pattern. If he listened to it longer maybe he could identify it.

Eliot sat in Nate's apartment, a good fifteen feet from the window, but that didn't mean he couldn't hear it.

One of the first things he'd learned after he turned was how to focus in on one sense or one thing, blocking everything else out, like he'd learned to the times he was captured (tortured), focusing on little things like the steady rhythm of water dripping into the corner of his cell.

Very like that.

He could get lost in that.

"Eliot." _Alpha, _the voice registers in his head. "I need you to look at me."

When did he look away? Obediently, always obedient these days, Nate was human but the bond was more than strong enough to make up for that, Eliot pulled his focus back to sight and focused his eyes on Nate.

Sophie said something. He only registered the concern. Something in him moved to reassure her but he felt…

"Eliot, it's okay. Hold still." Nate proved once more that he understood how to give the kind of orders a werewolf couldn't refuse. The touch of power in that order, his voice pitched at just the right tone to be sure the command penetrated the fog of his mind and stuck.

Eliot wouldn't move until told.

"This is going to hurt," Nate warned needlessly. The pain was eating at the back of Eliot's mind, tearing into what remaining control he had. He'd gotten lost in the raindrops for a reason.

Eliot couldn't move to tell Nate to just get it over with, but his Alpha got the message.

The hydrochloric acid hit the open wound and it was only the power in Nate's command that kept Eliot from arching off the bed and attacking both of them. He knew, on some level, that the acid would break down any traces of silver still in the wound. The best cure for the aftereffects of silver poisoning in werewolves was dousing the wound after the bullet was removed. As much as it hurt, it couldn't kill him and he'd heal from it within days instead of never.

It did not help the part of his brain that registered the pain as an attack.

The rest of what registered in his brain in that moment made him feel sick.

He tried to breathe through the agony, focus on the sound of rain against the windows, focus on the hands brushing through his hair. Sophie's, from the feel of them.

His mind was working slow. Even with the treatment it would take time for the effects of the silver poisoning to fully fade.

"Try to relax," Sophie told him, the edge order the only reason it registered.

He'd been meaning to talk to Nate and Sophie about being careful how they phrased things but it never seemed to matter enough to bother with the awkward conversation that would ensue.

Maybe he was just reluctant to let them know even a casual statement was registering in his instincts these days as something he couldn't resist.

The prospect of them knowing they had that kind of power was far worse than their accidental misuse of it.

Eliot turned his head slowly, trying to make his eyes focus on Sophie, the tension in his body easing slightly.

Somewhere out there Nate was getting water ready to rinse out the acid. "That's it. Relax. It'll make this easier."

Eliot was almost grateful for the next jolt of pain. It gave him a cover for closing his eyes, taking a sharp breath, and willing the darkness to take him under before…

**oOo**

_They were in the middle of what had been an easy con. Sophie was playing the part of an heiress and Eliot had gone in as her assistant and body guard. The mark, Henry Smith was falling almost too quickly, the con going almost too well._

_And then during one of their last meetings, Sophie sitting with the mark in his office going over some numbers, Smith asked Eliot to pour them both some water, joking about how it may be five o'clock somewhere but he liked to stay sharp for business._

_Eliot had growled slightly to himself about being treated like a servant, distracted and frustrated more than he should have allowed himself even if there was no sign of danger, but picked up the pitcher to serve them._

_Seconds later the water was spilled across the desk and floor, a sound closer to a bark or howl than cry escaping Eliot as he gripped his hand, blisters already appearing across it like he'd handled red hot metal._

_The pitcher was made out of silver._

_The mark was the first one to recover from the surprise. _

"_Have your dog stand down," Smith told Sophie before hitting a button on his phone. "James, please send someone with whatever's necessary to take care of a burn to my office. One of my associates had an accident with the pitcher."_

"_Right away, Sir," the Butler's dissociated voice replied before Smith turned his attention back to Sophie. _

_She had resisted the urge to go to Eliot. He was her bodyguard, her assistant, but not her character's friend. As much as she seemed to want to she couldn't make a fuss and Eliot knew it wasn't that bad. With his werewolf healing, the burns would be gone in little more than a day or two._

_Still, he knew when they got back to the apartment later both she and Nate, and probably the rest of the pack, would insist on him staying to make sure he was taken care of, using the pretense that silver was a serious deal for werewolves to try to get him to stay._

_Eliot let the servant who'd come to look after his hand do their job, listening to the conversation between Sophie and the mark continue as if it were as natural as anything that her bodyguard was a werewolf._

_It was an interesting world he lived in._

_He was looking forward to later._

**oOo**

It was still raining when he woke up.

For a while Eliot just lay there, listening to it, drifting, not trying to move or think or be.

He was better at that than most of the team would guess and he'd gotten a lot better at it since he was turned.

He could feel the wolf in his mind, curled up, almost like it was curling around him, soft whimpers just barely audible in his mind.

He didn't know if the wolf was trying to protect him or seek protection. There was too much overlap and mixing between them lately for him to be certain anymore. Sometimes he wondered if they'd just eventually completely merge. Jacob said it happened with those who grew up as werewolves but rarely for adults.

A hand ran through his hair and he shifted. He recognized Sophie's perfume. Recognized the feel of her skin and fingers, the feel of her weight on the bed next to him and her presence. His wolf always recognized the presence of his alphas.

Slowly Eliot opened his eyes, registering the fact they were alone. He could distantly smell traces of Nate, he was probably still in the apartment and definitely still in the building, but not here.

"Nate's sorting out some details for the wrap up. Hardison and Parker are in the apartments they have here." Sophie told him, probably sensing his confusion. Or perhaps knowing that if he didn't remember how he got here his first question would be the well being of the rest of the pack. "And I thought we might have a talk."

Eliot slowly sat up, holding his injured torso. He'd been shot twice with silver bullets but they'd missed anything important and now that they'd been given proper treatment he would recover almost as quickly as if they'd been normal rounds. In a week he'd be left with little more than flesh wounds. In two there wouldn't even be a scar to show for this mishap.

At least not a physical one.

"What's there to talk about?" He only half growled. He was frustrated but there was no reason to further anger his alphas. "I fucked up. The con went sideways 'cause I couldn't do my job."

"That wasn't your job!" Sophie said with force, moving closer, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You're our hitter, not ou-"

She stopped, cutting herself off, her hand leaving his arm and he cursed himself. He knew why she'd let go. He'd flinched. He, a supposedly world class hitter *before* he'd been turned into a werewolf, had flinched when a close friend, lover, human, civilian, had touched him.

Because she was his alpha and angry and he'd been expecting her to hit him.

His job was to not flinch. His job was to take the punishment and punch back.

"Eliot." Her voice was gentle, anger gone, like she was trying to calm a spooked Parker or some fucking client. "Eliot I want you to look at me."

He wasn't meeting her eyes. He knew she was more than skilled enough to figure out that he stopped making eye contact with them when they'd done something to trigger the conditioning Jacob had done to his wolf.

And him.

He forced himself to look up, to meet her eyes.

"I'm not angry at you," Sophie stated. "Nate isn't angry at you. He's angry at himself. We should have never let you try. There's a line somewhere and…" She sighed, folding in on herself a little, settling next to him and letting him break eye contact. "I don't care if you've done it before. I don't care if I've done it before. We're supposed to protect you, not use you."

Silence. The rain had a pattern. If he wanted to he could lose himself in it again. Put off the rest of this conversation for a while longer.

But he hadn't changed so much he'd run from a fight. Not one he'd have to face eventually anyway.

"You've done it before?"

Sophie stared toward the window. She smelled calm. But Eliot knew she could hide her emotions even from him.

"I was seventeen and in a bad situation the first time. It was the best way out. Now? I'm a Grifter. I do what I have to, to sell the con."

"To sell the con," Eliot repeated. "To get the job done."

**oOo**

"_Please, Julian, take a seat. Someone will be by with the papers for your employer momentarily." _

_Eliot was uncomfortable. He was here for the final stage of the con, picking up papers on behalf of Sophie's cover. The mark was sitting at his desk, watching him with interest._

_Eliot knew that the man knew about werewolves, enough to recognize Sophie was dominant to him, or at the very least had control over him. Enough to know about silver and who even knew what else. The wolf in Eliot's head was telling him there was trouble coming. That this man was too curious, knew too much, that it could only end badly._

_But there was the con to finish. After this Eliot didn't have to have anything to do with this man._

_If he tried really hard maybe he could just convince himself he was uncomfortable playing Julian again, or maybe just weirded out by having to play him next to Sophie instead of Nate and Tara._

"_You know I've studied your kind," Smith said, standing slowly, walking to loom over Eliot. He fought to stay in character. It would not do to have his wolf rear up and prove to this man a beta was only submissive to the alpha they chose. "They say a dominant enough human can hold power over a submissive wolf. That's what's happening with your mistress, isn't it?"_

_Eliot held back another growl, Sophie's voice in his ear telling him to stay in character oddly calming. _

_The man reached out, gripping a handful of Eliot's hair, pulling, forcing his head back to show neck. It was like the way the man was looming over him, that sticky smooth purr to him voice, a human overconfidence, trying to prove that they're the most dominant being in the room while mistaking a Wolf for a lapdog._

_The wolf itched to just show this worthless scrap of life just how incorrect his assumption was._

"_Eliot, can you ride this out?" Nate asked, the wording as a question on purpose. "Or figure out some way to make him back down without throwing the character?"_

_Smith took insult quickly and did not let it go. They all knew this was a delicate situation that could easily end up with Smith throwing Eliot out and refusing to do business with Sophie until Eliot was properly disciplined. It would add days to the con and complications._

_The rule of any con was that every day and every complication was a chance for something else to go wrong._

"_Sir, my employer sent me here to do business," Eliot stated, his voice even. "I am here to pick up her papers."_

"_Well then," Smith said. "I suppose then I'll just have to insist we do a bit of business before I'll give you the papers." The hand let go and petted through his hair. "It'd be a shame to let you go through here so quickly. I've always been… curious."_

_Two men, servants from their clothes but they had the very distinctive stance of security men, entered the room and Eliot reached for some way out of this short of breaking his cover._

"_Eliot. What's going on?" Nate asked, like Eliot could answer._

"_You will go with these two men," Smith said, his voice pitched deeper, the command obvious. There was even some force of will behind it but it fell away before really even touching Eliot. He was a Beta who had two Alphas he shared a strong bond with. It would take a very dominant werewolf to force him to do something he didn't want to. _

_This pampered housecat that thought himself a lion was no threat._

"_You will go with these two men and you will wait for me where they leave you." _

"_Eliot, go with them." Nate told him. "If things start coming apart you can leave but try to ride this out. Sophie and I are on our way."_

**oOo**

"Eliot, I signed up for this," Sophie said. "I chose to become what I am. I chose marks and strategies, balancing the risks and rewards for my entire career. Just like you took any job with the knowledge you might have to kill or be killed, I did my job knowing there were risks."

"Your point?" Eliot asked, still making a mental note to try to figure out some way to find names and knock off the people who'd mess with a seventeen year old.

"You didn't make the same choices I did. You didn't choose this. When Nate asked you to ride this out it went beyond you-"

"You know dungeons exist Sophie," Eliot said; frustration, anger, fire he both was and wasn't used to flashing up. "You know what they are, you know what they're for, and you know I've seen the insides of plenty." Sophie didn't try to mask the horror or _pity_ on her face. "What makes you think what happened is anything new to me?"

"It is," Sophie said simply. "At least it was different."

Eliot growled and looked away, she was looking at him like a victim. Did she really think…?

Why wouldn't she.

"If it wasn't different. If… if this was just like all those times before… would we be having this conversation?"

**oOo**

_Eliot knew before they reached the top of the stairs, before they turned down the hallway, before the guards opened a door and let Eliot into a bedroom._

_He waited for the door to lock, waited for…_

_What was he going to tell Nate? 'It seems our mark has a kink for werewolves that he's trying to force me to play along with? Can I get outta here? Mind if I protect my non-existent virtue at the cost of the job?'_

_Was he even surprised? It was the whole reason they were here. Their clients had been a maid and gardener here, fired and ruined after their sixteen year old daughter rejected Smith's advances and tried to take it to court when he pressed the issue. _

_Sure, Eliot was about as far from a sixteen year old girl as you could get but…_

"_Eliot what's going on?" Nate._

"_I think I can ride this out," Eliot told him. It wasn't like he had anything left to protect. He did what he had to, to survive. He'd always done that. It wasn't like he'd never been forced before. Hell even Jacob…_

"_What's going on?" Nate insisted again, probably catching the hitch in his breathing. _

_He couldn't think about that now. It wouldn't do him any good to think about Jacob or… he would just let this happen. It didn't matter. The job would go on without another hitch and he wouldn't be burned and they wouldn't have to send in Parker._

_Parker looked a lot more like a sixteen year old girl._

"_I'm going to have to go off coms for a little while," Eliot stated, trying to sound calm._

"_Tell me what's going on." Nate was not impressed._

"_Smith is convinced he's a dominant personality and it looks like he's gonna try to steal me from Sophie. I can ride this out, just kinda don't think you all wanna hear it happening."_

"_Oh, hell no," Hardison started before Nate cut him off._

"_Eliot, this is your call. If it goes too far get out of there. We'll be there in twenty minutes."_

_Outside the door Eliot heard Smith telling the guards to wait down the hall._

"_Take me off com, now," he hissed. He didn't want them to hear this. He could do whatever he needed to, but apparently some part of him didn't want them to know how far he would go. How easily he could go._

_Smith opened the door before he got an answer from Nate._

_He was too busy playing along to listen for the coms being cut off. Too busy biting down the wolf's distaste for this, feeling hands not his alpha's peeling off his shirt, telling him to…_

**oOo**

The rain was falling harder, the pattern had meaning. It sounded almost like the water of Nate's shower against the glass door…

Eliot shook off the memory, pushed it away, struggled to get to his feet. He was gross, sweat soaked, bloody, dirty in more ways than that. He could almost feel it smearing off him onto the sheets of his alpha's bed.

"Eliot. What's wrong?" Sophie asked, worried.

"'m taking a shower." Eliot told her. "I'm dirty. I'll feel more human if I can wash up."

He wasn't OCD or anything but one of the things he always hated about getting injured is how grimy he'd get, waiting to heal up enough to clean himself. Thankfully as a werewolf that period was mercifully short.

"Hot shower'd do me good." The words were out of his mouth before he realized he'd accidentally cut Sophie off.

His feet hit the floor but he didn't stand, his head was swimming. He was practically naked but the thought of getting to the bathroom, getting undressed, and actually getting into the shower…

He flinched again when Sophie touched his arm. His awareness of his surroundings seemed to have been more affected by the silver poisoning than he'd thought.

Yeah. The silver poisoning. He'd go with that theory.

"Eliot, you should rest for a little while longer," Sophie cautioned. "I know your werewolf healing's much quicker but you were shot less than ten hours ago." When he didn't move she added, "Twice."

"Sophie, I just… need a quick shower. It'll make me feel better."

Sophie gave a disbelieving sigh. "Stay in bed," she said. Where Nate's tone changed and Eliot could almost feel the force of will behind his commands, Sophie's were pure silk, the force feather light but strong as steel and precise enough he couldn't find a loophole to crawl through. "We need to talk about this."

"We don't," Eliot insisted. "I know I messed up. I know I need to rest up so I can help ya'll fix this." The thought he'd been trying to push down, trying to convince the wolf he'd just been… "I know I let that… man… touch what ain't his but it was for a job an' if I could just wash his smell off me it might help you both feel a little calmer."

Sophie made a noise and grabbed his arm, loosening the hold when he flinched. "His smell is on you?" Sophie asked, adjusting her hold to make it clearer she was helping him stand. When Eliot gave her a look, she added with a gentle smile: "We aren't all werewolves here Eliot. Nate and I don't smell anything but a bit of sweat and blood."

"Then why are ya suddenly so keen on getting me to the showers?" Eliot asked, though he had to admit the smell of sweat and blood had never really appealed to him in his human days either.

"Because…" Sophie paused her words for a moment, seeming to make up her mind as they crossed into the bathroom, settling him down on the seat in the shower they may or may not have gotten for these situations, and making sure he was meeting her eyes. "Because Smith tried to rape you, and you've been laying in there this whole time smelling him on you and I doubt that's really helping you work through what happened."

Eliot shook his head. "I… he didn't." He stumbled to reject the wording, he wasn't sure why. "I could have stopped it. Hell I coulda said no. I chose to go along with it 'cause it was the easiest way outta there without getting hurt more."

He stopped speaking and swallowed the bile rising in his throat. He was self aware enough to recognize the more tacked onto that sentence was a slip of a sort other than the tongue. He was smelling Jacob on his skin now.

"You slept with Jacob to stop him from beating you," Sophie said, her voice mercifully void of emotion. "Was it just the night you left or before that?"

"I don't-" Eliot leaned his head back against the wall behind him, eyes shutting tight, trying to just block out… everything. "Please, Sophie, don't…"

He wasn't going to go there. Wasn't going to think about it. There was just…

**oOo**

_It happened too fast, before he could stop it, before he could even warn anyone…_

_One second Smith had been pulling his shirt off, hands trailing toward Eliot's waistband the next Eliot was seeing Jacob, was waiting for the beating to start, but the pitiful show of will Smith had been trying to exert was nothing to Eliot when he was calm._

_It could hold him no more than a peashooter could stop a bear._

_Smith was down in the space of a heartbeat, claw marks across his face and chest a testimony to how out of control Eliot was. Guards broke in a moment later but Eliot was moving, breaking for the window, not even feeling the bullets until he was out it and halfway out of the grounds._

_It all got hazy after that, though he still, clearly, remembered Nate telling him to lie down and wait for them, remembers fighting the power because he was half delusional from the silver embedded in his body and trauma he was trying his hardest to just forget._

**oOo**

"It's different," Sophie said, and when did she get to be right in front of him, the wash cloth trailing over his torso, cleaning between bandages and wiping away _that_ smell, feeling so good. Her scent was all around him now, even when he closed his eyes he could still all but see it. Something in him eased a little bit, the wolf calming under the closeness and care of an Alpha. "Isn't it?"

Eliot blinked at her, he'd lost the train of their conversation somewhere along the line.

She smiled sadly at him before gently touching his neck. The first claiming mark she'd made had faded weeks ago but she renewed it when it did, the touch of alpha magic they got from him ensuring it stayed a good deal longer than his normal healing rate would allow.

The last had faded before this job started but he almost felt like her fingers were skimming the ghost of it.

"I've seen the signs, but we always figured we'd have time to get you to open up, help you heal." She shook her head. "We should have known better than to let that sort of thing fester."

Eliot looked down to his hands. There was still blood under his nails.

"I've been raped before," he stated, staring at the blood like it had meaning, or like it could be proof of something. "It's not about attraction. It's about anger. It's about dominating someone. Control. Worried the new guy in cell block 3 is going to cause waves? Send your gang in to break him down. Want information? Want to make sure your new employee knows his place?" He couldn't control the violence. But he put up a fight at least.

He fought back and even if he lost he knew, at least, he didn't break. That had kept him sane. It made him angry instead of hopeless.

"Why is this…" He didn't even know what he was asking.

"Different?" Sophie supplied, hands going still, resting over his. "I don't know. I can guess, but I don't live in your world. Why do you think it's different?"

"I couldn't…" he started. He hadn't been able to fight back, but that wasn't right. Maybe this time he hadn't been able to fight back, but he had control, he had a choice, and he'd freaked out because of a flashback to Jacob. With Jacob he had fought back in the end, or tried. It had been hard. For all the violence in him, attacking someone he loved had been against his nature before the wolf and had become almost physically impossible after.

Someone he…

Jacob had always been the catalyst for confusing emotions. The _Need_ Eliot hated but was still intimately part of being a werewolf had found an answer in Jacob. He'd brought _love, _and _safety _but also restrictions and confines and…

Pain.

There was something broken in him that love and pain were so closely connected in his head that the former coming without the later was half of what was keeping him holding Nate and Sophie at arm's length.

That if he was really honest with himself he knew that broken bit of him was why he'd stayed with Jacob so damn long.

A part of him hadn't really believed there was anything wrong with their relationship.

"I loved him," Eliot said, forcing his eyes up to meet Sophie's, defiantly, not letting... "And he beat me until I'd stay still long enough for him ta fuck me." Eliot stated, words he had never really thought he'd speak before, his voice losing power until it was barely a whisper. "And I still…" He shook his head. "A part of me still looks for him every time I go for a run."

He surrendered to Jacob. He let Jacob break him.

He stared at the wall, listening for the rain. It was too far.

But he could hear hints of sounds from below, the team, his pack.

His chest hurt, and he knew it wasn't the silver. His head was foggy and he knew it wasn't the silver.

He just…

"Eliot I want you to listen and really, try, to pay attention for a bit," Sophie said, drawing his attention back to her. "Jacob? Just because you didn't fight right then doesn't mean you gave your consent, and doesn't make you the victim." She gave him a small smile. "Or have you forgotten who sent Jacob running out of town with his tail between his legs?"

He looked at her, trying to comprehend, trying to get her to understand, trying…

"Eliot you once told me you can't control the violence. You couldn't control what Jacob did. All you can control is this." She lightly tapped the skin over his heart. "This is what you can control." Her hand moved up to cup his neck. "And I know you got mixed up, and I know it hurts, but Jacob's gone. You made the choice to walk away. You fought back when it mattered. He didn't break you." She placed a chaste kiss on his forehead and he closed his eyes, willing the words to sink in, take hold.

Heal wounds and replace words left to fester for too long.

He didn't suddenly feel better. There was no sudden relief and the weight of the world didn't budge from the spot on his shoulders where it had rested for the past twenty-odd years.

But she settled her hand on his shoulder and he didn't flinch.

It was a little victory, but he'd learned a long time ago to take what victories he could.

An hour later, clean, exhausted, his head only marginally clearer than before, Eliot stirred from the light doze he'd slipped into. He registered Nate had slipped into bed on the side of him that was not already occupied by Sophie. Nate kept a space between them, careful of Eliot's wounds, physical and otherwise.

With a low growl Eliot turned, wincing at the pull to his injuries, but not stopping until he'd given Nate a glare and tugged at his arm.

There were some (many) issues they needed to work out but he was tired and hurting and even if his human mind was confused he'd let the wolf's instincts lead him in this.

And the wolf felt safest, rested most easy, when he was barely more than a breath away from his alphas.

He closed his eyes and listened, the rain outside was coming down harder, but if he focused on his alpha's breathing he almost couldn't hear it.


End file.
